Almost "everything"

When I started reading it, I couldn’t remember how I came across it. But what I really knew was that it was all over and around me. I was too occupied reading it, was recommending it to all my friends, became my first choice as a gift to someone, and actually gifted a copy to a professor of my university. I loved the book, each and every part of it, and all the way was trying to figure out-“How the hell did I find out about it?” It wasn’t a million dollar question though, but human inquisitiveness is such that it never wants to forget the reasons why it loves or hates something. The question was finally answered with a statement that I hit upon while nearing the end of the book:


“There are three stages in scientific discovery: first, people deny that it is true; then they deny that it is important; finally they credit the wrong person.”

A distinguished professor made use of this statement in his lecture, which I attended by chance. I was intrigued by the appropriateness of the sentence and followed the reference to it, which happened to be a book written by Bill Bryson, titled: ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’. Not to mention, I grabbed a copy from my library and spent the next few days reading it. And I should admit it was worth the read.

The title of the book itself is the catch. When you think about 'everything', your imagination could fly places, and you would be tempted to read just to know what exactly does ‘everything’ means. Here, 'everything' can be construed as all that is responsible for the existence of earth and life. Now you would say why, there is the Big Bang Theory, and all the evolution philosophies.  So here comes the author with a different version of all that you have known till now. In his words:

“This is a book about how it happened-in particular how we went from there being nothing at all to there being something, and then how a little of that something turned into us, and also some of what happened in between and since.”

He strikes with the emerging of the universe, how it sprang from almost nothing, and what was the main idea behind the Big Bang. He talks about everything- from Einstein’s world to Darwin’s, from the mightiness of an atom to the fragility of human race. Almost all forms of sciences have been discussed, including physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and geology, and he has managed to connect these different fields really well in seeking answers to questions which probably no one bothers to answer.

It is wonderful to note the curiosity with which the author approaches each faction of life. He looks at it from a non-scientific perspective, and it is quite amusing to see the way he perceived science in school. According to him:

”It was as if [the textbook writer] wanted to keep the good stuff secret by making all of it soberly unfathomable.”

Apart from the in-depth discussions on various questions, there are several facts mentioned in the book which would leave you flabbergasted. For instance, I came to know of particular names that were behind some marvelous discoveries and should have been credited, but they just got lost amidst competition, animosity, stubbornness and sometimes, indigence.

But nevertheless, it is a science book. The examples, experiences and views shared here are sure to captivate you, and make you look at things with a different eye. I am tempted to put down some of the quotes which I liked personally (some of them might be really long):

"Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms-upto a billion for each of us, it has been suggested-probably once belonged to Shakespeare. A billion more came from Buddha and Genghis Khan and Beethoven, and any other historical figure you care to name. So we are all reincarnations-though short lived ones."

"If you imagine the 4,500-bilion-odd years of Earth's history compressed into a normal earthly day, then life begins very early, about 4 A.M., with the rise of the first simple, single-celled organisms, but then advances no further for the next sixteen hours. Not until almost 8:30 in the evening, with the day five-sixths over, has Earth anything to show the universe but a restless skin of microbes. Then, finally, the first sea plants appear, followed twenty minutes later by the first jellyfish and the enigmatic Ediacaran fauna first seen by Reginald Sprigg in Australia. At 9:04 P.M. trilobites swim onto the scene, followed more or less immediately by the shapely creatures of the Burgess Shale. Just before 10 P.M. plants begin to pop up on the land. Soon after, with less than two hours left in the day, the first land creatures follow. 
Thanks to ten minutes or so of balmy weather, by 10:24 the Earth is covered in the great carboniferous forests whose residues give us all our coal, and the first winged insects are evident. Dinosaurs plod onto the scene just before 11 P.M. and hold sway for about three-quarters of an hour. At twenty-one minutes to midnight they vanish and the age of mammals begins. Humans emerge one minute and seventeen seconds before midnight. The whole of our recorded history, on this scale, would be no more than a few seconds, a single human lifetime barely an instant. Throughout this greatly speeded-up day continents slide about and bang together at a clip that seems positively reckless. Mountains rise and melt away, ocean basins come and go, ice sheets advance and withdraw. And throughout the whole, about three times every minute, somewhere on the planet there is a flash-bulb pop of light marking the impact of a Manson-sized meteor or one even larger. It's a wonder that anything at all can survive in such a pummeled and unsettled environment. In fact, not many things do for long." 

"It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you."

"Protons give an atom its identity, electrons its personality." 

“If this book has a lesson, it is that we are awfully lucky to be here-and by “we” I mean every living thing. To attain any kind of life in this universe of ours appears to be quite an achievement. As humans we are doubly lucky, of course: We enjoy not only the privilege of existence but also the singular ability to appreciate it and even, in a multitude of ways, to make it better. It is a talent we have only barely begun to grasp."

"It is easy to overlook this thought that life just is. As humans we are inclined to feel that life must have a point. We have plans and aspirations and desires. We want to take constant advantage of all the intoxicating existence we've been endowed with. But what's life to lichen? Yet its impulse to exist, to be, is every bit as strong as ours—arguably even stronger. If I were told that I had to spend decades being a furry growth on a rock in the woods, I believe I would lose the will to go on. Lichens don't. Like virtually all living things, they will suffer any hardship, endure any insult, for a moment's additional existence. Life, in short, just wants to be." 

Mentioning about the doomsyear 2012, he says:

“We have been chosen, by fate or providence or whatever you wish call it. As far as we can tell, we are the best there is. We may be all there is. It’s an unnerving thought that we may be the living universe’s supreme achievement and its worst nightmare simultaneously.”

“….I mention all this to make the point that if you were designing an organism to look after life in our lonely cosmos, to monitor where it was going and keep a record of where it has been, you wouldn’t chose human beings for the job.”

So, though not exactly everything as one can imagine, the book talks about everything that is truly responsible for our existence. I might just take another opportunity to read it again, for those who haven’t, give it a shot. You will not regret.